The dissecting a lesson compendium

The title of this blog sounds like an episode name from The Big Bang Theory, but no, all I've done here is put together in one place a series of blogs I've written over the last two years. These posts analysed specific lessons in detail, as I did in my book Becoming an Outstanding Languages Teacher (2017). I'll give a linked title to each blog before briefly describing it. I hope these might be useful to teachers wishing to develop their planning and pedagogy skills. So here we go:

Exploiting narrow reading texts

This is a resource using the "narrow reading" approach for recycling language. You could use it with an intermediate class (GCSE). it's on the topic "How well do you sleep?" which offers opportunities for some useful communicative exchanges.

A speaking and listening task

This is adapted an example of a lesson from Chapter 3 of Jack C. Richards' book Key Issues in Language Teaching (2015). The original lesson was planned by Diana Croucher, an English language teacher in Barcelona. This could be used with a good intermediate or advanced class and is a good example of the communicative approach at work. Students receive lots of comprehensible input and opportunities to adapt it for their own needs. We refer to it in our book Breaking the Sound Barrier (Conti and Smith, 2019).

Teaching an intermediate level written text

This post is a beginner’s guide about how you might go about working with a written text with low-intermediate or intermediate students (Y10-11 in England). It's not what you should do, just one approach based on my own experience and keeping in mind what we know from research about language learning.

Talking about a family

This is a French resource with a lesson sequence and comments based on the topic of family. It would suit a class of reasonably motivated near-beginners who have already done some groundwork on family vocabulary. You could use it as an introduction to the topic with a high-attaining group. This type of lesson would be typical of the oral-situational approach (adapted direct method) with elements of imaginative storytelling and communicative language teaching. You need to make the language as comprehensible as possible, probably with a little recourse to translation from time to time to make sure this is the case.

Using a set of PowerPoint slides

I wrote this post just after producing for frenchteacher.net three separate PowerPoint presentations using the same set of 20 pictures (sports). It shows a very good way for you to save time by reusing  the same base resource in a number of different ways. I chose 20 clear, simple, clear and copyright-free images from pixabay.com to produce three presentations on present tense (beginners), near future (post beginner) and perfect tense (post-beginner/low intermediate).

A mixed-skill lesson focused on speaking

This one is actually an extract from Becoming an Outstanding Languages Teacher. It breaks down in detail how you might approach an easy intermediate text (the Cinderella story. It includes a precise description of specific teacher-pupil oral exchanges you could use.

Using the relative pronoun "que"

This a lesson sequence based on a PowerPoint presentation which shows one way to "teach grammar". The aim is to get students to practise using que as a relative pronoun, e.g. Les livres que j'ai achetés. This piece of grammar is tricky because in English we commonly use no word at all where French has to use que, e.g. compare with the books I bought. You would probably want to mention the PDO agreement issue here, but with many classes that won't be a priority.

The aim of the lesson is to generate LOTS of meaningful repetitions of que used as a relative pronoun. Students are encouraged to invent their own examples as part of the lesson plan. This sequence uses a sentence builder frame, a game (devised by Gianfranco Conti), paired practice and translations. I have included a set of instructions for the teacher, but you could adapt it as you please. the original PowerPoint is on the Y10-11 page of frenchteacher.net.

20 faits divers intéressants sur la France

this is a lesson based on a captioned video about some interesting facts about France. It's easy multi-skill task with some general cultural knowledge thrown in. You could try this lesson plan with a very good Y10/11 class (intermediate) or advanced class.


So that's it. No doubt I'll be doing the occasional "dissecting a lesson" blog in the future and, as I often say, these are suggestions for going about lessons based on my own experience and knowledge of theory and pedagogy.

Image: pixabay.com